Based on previous intelligence and reports, the average price that a person from Cuba pays to human smugglers to be transported across the Florida Straits to the United States is $10,000.

A United States Federal Security Agent testified that when the person being smuggled out of Cuba is a potential Major League Baseball Player, then the smuggling fee can be up to 25 times higher, or $250,000. In addition to these fee that must be paid to the smugglers, the baseball player and his family must agree to give up to 20 percent of the initial contract that is signed with a professional baseball team.

According to the Los Angeles Times, there are some current major league players from Cuba who are currently making payments to the smugglers while their families back home are threatened with violence is payment is not received.

A man in the US State of Florida was selling counterfeit Cuban birth certificates to illegal immigrants in the United States. Due to US immigration policy, Cuban nationals are able to apply for a green card after one year of being in the country.

The man was selling fake Cuban birth certificates to migrants from Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Each migrant was already in the United States illegally, and paid between $10,000 to $50,000 for the fake documents. By possessing the fake Cuban birth certificates, the migrants attempted to pass off as Cuban nationals to US immigration officials.

According to court documents, the man sold around 50 fake birth certificates and made over $500,000.

In the Fiscal Year 2011, authorities in the United States seized around 1,700 people from Cuba who were attempting to enter the U.S., which was a 100 percent increase from the 831 people seized in Fiscal Year 2010.

The U.S. Coast Guard seized around 1,000 people at sea, an increase from 422 the year before. Cubans who landed on U.S. shores increased to almost 700, up from the 409 people in the previous fiscal year.

The average human smuggling price that people paid to smugglers in order to bring people into the United States remained at $10,000.

Source: Alfonso Chardy and Juan O. Tamayo, “Illegal Cuban migration, after years of decline, is up again,” Miami Herald, October 9, 2011.